SHELL-MONEY—GOVERNMENT. Ail 
morning in cold water; but in the care of their cabins and the vicinity they 
are sufficiently filthy. 
The Karok is taciturn and indifferent toward his squaw and parents, 
but seldom wantonly cruel; easy-going with his children; talkative and 
merry with his peers; generous to the division of the last crumb; mercenary 
and smiling to the white man; brave when need is, but cunning always; 
fond of dancing; extremely curious, inquisitive, and quick to imitate; very 
amorous; revengeful but avaricious, being always placable with money. 
For money they make use of the red scalps of woodpeckers, which 
rate at $2.50 to $5 apiece; and of the dentalium shell, of which they grind 
off the tip and string it on strings. The shortest pieces are worth 25 cents, 
the longest about $2, the value increasing rapidly with the length. ‘The 
strings are usually about as long asa man’s arm. It is called al’-li-ko-chik (in 
Yurok this signifies, literally, “Indian money”), not only on the Klamath, 
but from Crescent City to Hel River, though the tribes using it speak sev- 
eral different languages. When the Americans first arrived in the country, 
an Indian would give $40 or $50 gold for a string, but now the abundance 
of the supply has depreciated its value, and it is principally the old Indians 
who esteem it. 
The Karok are very democratic. They have a headman or captain in 
each rancheria, though when on the war-path they are in a slight degree 
subject to the control of one chief. But the authority of all these officers 
is very slender. The murder of a man’s dearest relative may be com- 
pounded for by the payment of money, the price of the average Indian’s 
life being i/-sa pa-sd-ra (one string). If the money is paid without higgling, 
the slayer and the avenger at once become boon companions. If not, the 
avenger must have the murderer’s blood, and a system of retaliation is ini- 
tiated which would be without end were it not that it may be arrested any 
moment by the payment of money. 
In war they do not take scalps, but decapitate the slain and bring in 
the heads as trophies. They do battle with bows and arrows, and in a hand- 
to-hand encounter, which often occurs, they clutch ragged stones in their 
hands and maul each other with terrible and deadly effect. They some- 
times fight duels with stones in this manner. Though arranged without 
